Variety: Pub
Address: 1515 South Park Street
Date Visited: Friday, July 24, 2015
Orders: Shepherd's Pie, Nachos
Taste: 8 + 6 = 14/20
Portion Size: 9 + 10 = 19/20
Presentation: 8 + 8 = 16/20
Value: 9 + 8 = 17/20
Service: 8 + 9 = 17/20
Bonus: 1
Minus: 2
Final Grade: 82% (Good)
(Scoring: 100% to 140% = Exceptional, 85% to 99% = Excellent, 67% to 84% = Good, 60% to 66% = Satisfactory, 50% to 59% = Marginal, 0% to 49% = Poor, -40% to -1% = Abysmal)
Notes: The former Victory Arms Pub, located inside the Lord Nelson Hotel, recently received a significant renovation, both to its facilities and its menu. The menu before was "ok," but nothing to write home about. Now, it's filled with "comfort food" and other items you might expect to see on pub menus (and some...not so much).
Although it was a decently warm day in the middle of what passes for summer in Halifax, J opted for the Shepherd's Pie. It was hearty, meaty and filling, but perhaps not the best choice for a summer's night. Still, it was a solid meal. It was served with some strange pickled vegetables - onion, carrot, and some kind of Japanese turnip. An odd choice, but ok. For what it was, the price was reasonable, too.
T started off with the beer sampler - four small glasses of four craft beers for an exceptionally reasonable price (hence the bonus point). Off to a good start! She'd had the nachos before and was in the mood for some cheese and chips, covered with some vegetables to help her pretend she was eating something kinda healthy. Well, a cavernous mountain of cheese and chips arrived, but it seems they forgot about the vegetables. Without exaggeration, there were perhaps 20 small slivers of tomato, even fewer of the pickled banana peppers the menu had boasted, and that was about it. Further, after she broke through the peak of Mount Chipsncheez (tm), there was nothing but a pile of dry chips (see photo below). Again, the vegetables on top of the nachos are supposed to help take the guilt out of why you're really there, but she was utterly robbed of this feature, and had to dock the joint a couple of points for this failure. Again, she'd had the nachos before and would have rated them higher based on the previous presentation - it must have been an off night.
(As an aside, it was a good thing J and T didn't invite their good friend S to review his meal - his pathetically small lobster roll served on a crappy store-bought hot dog bun did not look at all impressive).
The server was fairly attentive and pleasant, though we did find it a little curious that J, the only one at the table who didn't also order the beer sample, was given a tiny glass of water while the others were offered pint glasses. She even commented on that, but didn't rectify the situation when the glass mysteriously ended up empty every 10 minutes or so.
Final Verdict: Shepherd's Pie a hit, Nachos a surprising miss, but worth revisiting another time.
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